For a brief moment in time, Sibongile Mani was living the high life.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, she’s the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) student who accidentally had R14 million plonked into her account from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) last year.

What happened next? She blew through the money with some stupendous spending, became a full-blown celeb on campus, and rustled up much conjecture about how she would pay back the money.

Fast forward to 2018, and yesterday in particular, when she appeared in the East London Magistrate’s Court. Here’s News24:

Hawks spokesperson Captain Anelisa Feni confirmed that Mani, 28, was arrested on Tuesday by the Serious Commercial Crime Unit of the Eastern Cape Hawks, after it requested that she hand herself over.

She has been charged with theft…

“She allegedly spent just over R810 000 of this amount on personal items over a period of three months before the anomaly was detected by the scheme,” Feni said…

Mani was released on a warning and was expected back in court on July 2.

Well, karma is a bitch, because for all the frivolous spending and living it up, a few things stand out:

News24 last year detailed how Mani, who studied accountancy at WSU, spent the money hosting parties for her friends, buying Peruvian wigs, designer clothes, handbags and expensive smartphones. During this time, her grandmother who raised her continued living in poverty.

She was spending close to R11 000 a day by some estimates, but the woman who raised her was just an afterthought.

Classy – should have taken a leaf out of that tennis player’s book and shown Grandma some respect.

Given that she was so keen to blow through money meant to go towards providing opportunities for others, she should have a glittering career in politics ahead of her.

[source:news24]